Week 95: Chennai first week looking for apt

We will get a longer recap of the past week in a few days.  The photos below are from his last few days in the Dowelaiswaram area in Rajamundry. He really loves that place.

Sorry for the late email this week, I was super busy with my new companion Elder Bunga getting from here to there and this whole mess that unfolded as I came to Chennai. But no things are a little bit different and we are getting in the rythm of things.

I almost cried saying goodbye to Dowelaiswaram branch and it was hard to say goodbye to Elder Thambi. He was a great missionary and I was blessed to be with him for that trainig process. That branch will stay in my heart as the months go bye unitl I come back to India. 

There is really nothing new that is happening other than the fact that we have been looking for apartments for the past 3 days. Our apartment has been having a lot of problems lately and we actually have to leave for some time and live in the other Elders apartment for the time being. This is a very humbling experience for me. We have looked at like 13 apartments and all of them have been wanting families instead of bachelors and it is very frustrating. Even when i give this whole speech to the owner about what we do and how we are REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST he is like, "Yeah...thats great and all but we want families!"-_- 

We are preparing a sister for a baptism next week, her name is sister Jennifer and she is Owesome! 

Me and her little baby son are best friends and that also is Owesome.

Other than that...It is so freaking hot outside! I have been having the worst luck ever. I tore 2 of my pants already trying to get into autos and the pants that would have been great for Chennai I gave them to members in Rajahmundry:( 

See you in 3 days:)

Elder Dusara

Morning cricket and futbol gang

Singh and Dusara

The gang in Rajahmundry

Week 94: Trying to be like Alma and Amulek

So General Conference was...freaking sweet! My favorite messages were given in the Saturday sessions and Priesthood Sessions about Fatherhood and Marriage:) There were some great talks that were also given about missionaries and people who are preparing to serve. I have been thinking about some things I need to change when I come home and what will take priority in my life. I know that I cannot be doing a lot of the things I did before my mission, I just need to put the more importance to the things Heavenly Father wants me to do.

Anyway as the title says, "Trying to be like Alma and Amulek". If you read in the chapters in Alma where he is introduced to Amulek you see that they had one of the most successful exchanges we have record of. This week and also next week my companion and I have decided to not go on splits any more so we can have more effective appointments because the spirit will be stronger when we testify together. We actually almost achieved all of our goal that we set and our appointments were so much more powerful. Even though the weather is hotter than sin we are still outside and cycling to and fro to get to the appointments we have set. For some reason this week we have been talking to people more outside than we ever have before. We have been teaching and talking to so many youth that come to play futbol in the morning and also we have been blessed to share this gospel with the deaf. We met two brothers the other day that could not hear but could understand English and could write it. It was so cool just try and communicate with them with the little knowledge I had with sign language.

So the appointment of the week goes to one family that is experiencing some really tough legal problems that they are not even responsible for. The children are fine but the parents could be in some huge trouble. I went with our Branch Mission Leader Ramesh and we planned on sharing about prophets but...the spirit guided us in a different direction. I started to share one of my favorite stories about Faith and Patience and the 3 children responded "We just broke our fast 20 minutes ago and that was the same scripture that we read together before you came"(Ramesh and I had a small bro fist-bump). They ended up telling me what that lesson meant and I shared some personal stories of how my family and I have been blessed when we have Faith in our Heavenly Father and Patience with him. Such a spirit driven lesson, I don't know if it could have been better than that honestly.

I want to give a shout out to my dude Riki(Get those Red Robin points loaded up:)) 

Here is the greatest primary troll face!

Love,

Elder Dusara 

Week 93: It's Curling! Book of Mormon is helping hasten the work...

The time in Utah to drop the younger Elder Dusara has been an amazing experience for all of us. To read the experiences the elder brother is having continues to have an impact in all of our lives, but especially his younger brother.  It's looking like the heat and humidity are helping shed some unwanted lbs for Elder Dusara.

So last night before we went to bed we had a long discussion about a certain sport in the Olympics but we could not remember for the life of us what that game was called. For 30 minutes we thought it started with an S and we kept going through different names from shuffling, skating, shaking,.shifting, sambar&Rasam, literally anything that started with an S. With al of our energy gone and just wanting to go to bed, we received a text message and it said Curling! I turned to Elder Singh and shouted ITS CURLING! We are rejoiced for 10 minutes and laughed so freaking hard.

This week we continued to teach every lesson from the Book of Mormon and we are seeing more and more of our investigators are now reading on their own and are making much better progression than they used to. On Sunday two sisters that we have been teaching for two months came to church for the first time and they loved the atmosphere of the church and the members that helped them learn. We had such great members fellowship them and they did not let them leave their sight. They were there to answer questions and to introduce to them new things about the church.

It is getting much hotter outside and the humidity is ridiculous. Two days ago it was 101 with 96% humidity and it was horrible. We sit in the AC in the mornings and when we leave for lunch we just die. Its great because the weight is coming off but...It feels so gross outside. No more spicy foods because it just adds to the nightmare hahah.

So the photos below are of the movie night we had on Friday. I was hoping to watch Meet the Mormons but there were problems with Google so we watched the Prince of Egypt. We celebrated a birthday at the same time so everything was chill! 

Another 2 photos are of our investigators with the Book Of Mormon and their mother. They are progressing very well.

ALOHA! 

ELDER DUSARA

Big Smooth playing cricket

Week 92: The power of the Book of Mormon

This young man is really changing right before our eyes.  The experiences that he is sharing are coming from his heart and he is really totally committed to sharing the gospel to the people of India. He is learning so much each and every day.

Before I even start my letter today I would just like everyone to know that I got pooped on by a bird yesterday! 

The Book of Mormon has literally changed everything in our area. We have been so worried in the past by responding to other peoples questions by going directly to the New Testament to answer their concerns, leaving very little room to share or even focus on the Book of Mormon. Yeah, we were able to answer their question but that only led to another question and so on. 

Right after that conference we practiced every morning using the Book of Mormon and trying to be creative with it. We have been teaching lessons in the morning because many of our New Investigators come to play soccer with us and that is the only time they can meet. We have not taught one lesson this week that was not centered on the Book of Mormon. 

We saw, not only were they actually reading the Book of Mormon, but they were also keeping other commitments as well. We are working with one family that was not progressing at all really, but still continued to go and visit and see what the Spirit can do. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with them pretty much all week and now they are reading the Book of Mormon as a part of their family studies they have. Their daughter and son are preparing for baptism April 12th and we are going to read the Book of Mormon every day to get the parents also.

The Book of Mormon will change, and can change everything...you just need to have faith. Every appointment we had was spiritual and powerful. People focused and could feel that power work with in them.

So here is a funny quote of the day for you.

We needed one more brother to come with us on splits, I tried everyone but no one replied. I was able to get a hold of one brother and this is the conversation.

Dusara: "Hey Brother can you help us today?"

Brother: "Sorry Elder I am trying to prepare to go back to Vizak tomorrow."

Dusara: "Wait you have plenty of time to get your things ready, we only need you for 3 hours."

Brother  "Sorry Elder I need to iron my shirt"

Dusara: "Wait what? You need to iron your shirt?" Just come in whatever you want"

Brother: "Sorry Elder bye..."

Dusara: "Troll face with Elder Singh for 20 minutes ------____--------

Another Elder Dusara is coming,

Elder Dusara

Week 91: AC goes out, but the Spirit comes in

This young man's testimony grows stronger each week with the experiences that he has.  We are truly blessed to have him serving a mission among the people in India.  

So last week our AC was leaking water and we woke up to a little lake it our bedroom, 2 days ago we did not turn on the AC and instead let the fan run...I think I lost 10lbs trying to sleep and my pillow and bed sheets were soaked in sweat. Elder Singh continues to scoop everyone without cause or mercy and it's injuring me. Since we have been playing football (English) in the morning I am starting to see my body trim down a bit and it feels awesome!

Elder Thambi is continuing to rock it with the members and is doing a great job getting close with our investigators. Everyone loves him and it makes teaching so much more effective, We are continuing to do all we can to prepare our investigators for baptism but we are still having trouble with some of them to help them come to church. Elder Thambi and I have been spiritually drained a couple times last week because we have been having awesome personal studies for our investigators parents.We had an interesting experience with one mother who was very set on Jehovah being god. We shared with her many scriptures from the New Testament to support our claim that Heavenly Father is our father and HIs father but...since her bible was translated horribly wrong she did not understand. It was also in Telugu so even we could not understand. I am so grateful for the King James version of the Bible! 

So on a more spiritual note. Yesterday we received a phone call from one of our great families(Chinagondolas). They wanted us to give a blessing to their mother since she would be going to Hyderabad to undergo a surgery. We felt it would be good to give a comfort blessing and that is what we did. The mother, sister Kanthum, started to cry and get very sad so we decided to share a scripture I read in my personal study in Alma chapter 14.  Alma and Amulek were thrown in prison and were delivered because of their patience and because of their faith. The spirit just swooped in and everyone was just silent after we read the verses we needed to read. Then for the closing prayer I called on the daughter Tulasi to give the prayer but she did not know how? I taught her to pray in English and she started to cry during the prayer and than everyone in their family started to cry. The spirit was very strong and I was just speechless after. My companion and I fist bumped after the lesson! MY LIFE IS BRO

Enjoy the Handsome,

ELDER DUSARA

Look out Bollywood

Henna...misspelled

Week 90: The blessings keep coming

Elder Dusara continues to "Hasten the Work" in India.  He and his companion have been in Rajahmundry for approximately 6 weeks and they are averaging about 25 lessons each week.  They are having a wonderful time serving among the saints in that part of India.

This email will be nice and short because there is not much to say other than the work is moving forward and we had the Baptism of Brother Lokesh on Sunday.

We have been teaching Lokesh for about 2 weeks and he is more than prepared. The Baptism was preformed by Elder Thambi (His first baptism) and everything went awesome! Brother Srinivas also baptized his son Satish. The day just got better when we went back to Lokesh's home at night. We taught him about the Holy Ghost and tied his father into it as well since he is not a member of the church. We asked him how much he loves his family and if living together forever would be something to look forward to, of course he said that he would love that and we just felt like we should invite him to be baptized. He was unsure about it at first and then when we asked him to pray about it he said he would to that. 

We have been playing soccer every morning here for the past 2 weeks and not only do we get a good workout, we get the chance to teach some awesome people as well. This past Sunday we saw brother Vamsi at church and he has been playing soccer with us since day one and he loves the members of the church. He wanted me to hook him up with Gospel Library and to come to his home to teach him and his grandparents. Since the Cricket world cup is happening soon we will be playing Cricket in the coming weeks and hopefully I will have the chance to teach the YSA's how to play American Football.

So much for a short email. I mentioned last week that we have been struggling to have our investigators at sacrament. This past week was the greatest blessings we have received in a long time. Every investigator that we have been teaching that has not come to church in the past 3-4 weeks came yesterday and they had a blast at church. The members fellowship great and now all those investigators want to come back next week:) 

We are having a hard time meeting with all our investigators even when we go on splits. Heavenly Father is blessing this area abundantly! 

Enjoy the Photos

YOSO,

ELDER DUSARA   

Teaching bro Srinivas and Satish

Lokesh and Satish

Baptism of Lokesh and Satish

Week 89: Disappointments will come

We asked Elder Dusara, what he would do different if he had the chance to prepare over again and his response is below:

- My mission has been memorable so far! I cannot tell you have many awesome experiences I have had and I cannot tell you the many crap things that have happened. Its 30 years of experience all in 2 years!

- I wished I would have been more in tune with the scriptures. I love reading them and I love learning the deeper doctrines of what different scriptures mean.

Do not be fooled by my title today. Elder Thambi and I still worked really hard and had 25 great appointments but there is another principle that I learned this past week. I am sharing this because it will be a little bit different compared to my other emails.

So the whole week we have been preparing our investigators in all things. One of them is coming to church. It does not matter what you teach them during the week because if they do not come to church they are not exercising that faith that will push them to the next..level.  Its kind of like Halo. Before you move on to the next chapter or the next level you usual fight a boss or face something really challenging. 

So sometimes like yesterday, our investigators did not come and I was so sad. In Elders Quorum class we were reading through the Ezra Taft Benson manual and we came to chapter 4 which talks about "Living Joyfully in Troubled Times". I was reading through that in class and I just felt so happy for some reason and I was excited to visit those families that were not able to attend church. We visited every family and we able to share with them the importance of Sacrament. Something that was interesting to note was that after we finished the lessons they said that they knew or felt like something was wrong when they did not come to church. I am pretty sure that is the Light Of Christ acting within them. 

We found two new investigators yesterday and they were two people that I was told to go speak too. I I ITL'D them last week and did not ask for his phone number just to see if he would actually call me. I knew where he stayed so everything was fine. He did call me yesterday and I went on exchange with Arun and Raj Surya and we started teaching the "God Head" and then this brothers wife started asking questions that Joseph Smith also asked...so...the lessons turned into the restoration by the end and it was so cool. She has a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ and so does her husband! 

Here are some photos of our Service Activity:) 

YOSO,

ELDER DUSARA